My interest in coffee began when I was too small to actually sit at a table. My grandparents owned a restaurant and I would sit in the customers laps and sip coffee from the saucers.

The aroma of a freshly ground coffee made with clean water can be pleasant to a lot of people. And for me, the aroma is as much a part of it as the taste. Which is also why I prefer a medium roast with no dairy or sugar.

There's tons of bean varieties that may give you something different to try.

Or maybe it's not your thing for now

Dependson the situation. Weekdays I like a nice cup of dark roast made out of a mocha pot. Weekends I will often grind some espresso beans and make a cappuccino or latte in the morning then have an espresso in the afternoon post lunch.

On the odd meal out, depending on the number of courses served, time of day and whether I'm driving home, I'll split a small coffee over dessert to limit the post-meal food coma.

I've started having a chicory drink (bambú) at night again since the weather is cooler as dark tea doesn't agree and herbal tea is hit or miss quality wise.

the energy boost is minimal when you drink it regularly. actually at some point you drink it just to "wake up", which is probably an effect of the addiction to caffeine.

anyway i drink it because it tastes so good. i usually make it at home with the moka, quite different from an espresso, but nowhere close to an americano.
with or without sugar, depending on how i feel in that moment. i love coffee.

Lots of things go into coffee that can make it taste really terrible or really good, just like tea. Like for coffee, French press or siphon coffee is more flavorful but apparently doesn't give as much caffeine as drip brew. Then you have your types of roasts with how dark the beans are, where they were grown...

I know how you feel though. A lot of my friends go into the nuances of things like craft beers but I genuinely just don't like the taste of most beers even though they insist there's a brew for everyone!

I love coffee. I have 6-7 cups a day. Coffee and water are my main beverages. My staple is Folgers Black Silk. I use half & half (a lot of it) no sugar. I don't care for coffee flavored with other things. It's mostly because of the flavor. When the Tramadol I take was cut and things like Amitriptyline and muscle relaxers, they basically traded pain relief for sedation. My coffee consumption increased because I don't want to sleep my life away.

i drink it because it tastes good and it can be prepared a variety of ways. like someone earlier in the thread mentioned, its not like all coffee is the same, the same beans grown in different soils or climates change the flavor completely. there are actually certified coffee tasters who are like sommeliers but for coffee who specialize in knowing this sort of stuff which i always found neat.

ive never really noticed the caffeine in coffee making a difference for how i feel so i cant really add any input there but i think if youre someone who cares just for the caffeine, there are probably better beverages that wont stain your teeth.

Personally for the alertness and focus boost. I don't like the taste of coffee and use sweetener to mask its bitterness.

Usually in the afternoon I'll heat up some water, add the coffee powder and the sweetener and its ready to go.

(I have tried other brands and types of coffee - don't like it.)

Because as addictions go, it's cheaper than cocaine.

The problem with coffee, is that a lot of places have it, just to have it. Coffee in many restaurants isn't thought of "we need to have good coffee", its more "we need to have coffee". You go to most places and get a coffee, and its way too thin, or over brewed, burnt, acidic, brackish bullshit, and its no wonder that if anyone were to have that as their only measure, they'd wonder what all the fuss is about.

Coffee can for sure be taken too far the other way, that anything brewed with water one degree outside the perfect zone, or without the confirmation of a litmus strip being taken is akin to bathwater.

Really, if you do like coffee, or you want to try it out in earnest and see if its for you, a great book i loved reading was "The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee". There's discussion of the history of coffee, and the process of getting it to your sip-hole, which i thought that was neat, but it also talks about some science and preparation behind the roasting temps, and preparation methods.

For instance, dark roast coffee removes a good majority of the flavour notes of the raw bean, which masks to an extent poor quality beans. So if you light roast a coffee bean, you preserve a lot of its flavour- and the caffeine- and the flavours you taste come from the bean itsself. Fruity, acidic, et al. If you dark roast a coffee, you start to burn off and lose a lot of that intrinsic aroma of that particular bean, and you tend to get flavours from the process itself. If you have high quality beans, you want light to medium roast... if you have poor quality beans, you want many commercials talking about how great your Dark Roast coffee is...

Don't drink trashy coffee
Artisan coffee or more common to be called specialty coffee taste very mild, fruity, n for some very high quality it has floral aroma.

A couple years ago, I worked opening shifts as a barista where coffee was free. I was also dealing with a medical diagnosis that really f**ked up my sleep (still have it, but it's much better managed now) so it was hard to get enough sleep and wake up on time for work. Sometimes when I need to be awake and alert early in the day I'll drink coffee, though that's rarer now that I'm not a student and don't work mornings.

I don't work as a barista anymore (maybe soon again though) so I don't have time or equipment to make insane espresso drinks, and I don't like the taste of black coffee or straight espresso anyway. I'm not all that bothered with the quality of the coffee, aside from like not drinking McDonald's coffee lol. At home, I make a cafe au lait with skim milk and sugar free vanilla syrup. For hot coffee I just have a cheap drip coffee pot, and for iced I make cold brew. Thinking about upgrading to a french press for hot coffee. When I'm out and about I usually get a vanilla skim latte.

Growing up my grandmother was a huge coffee drinker. Our house was always filled with the smell of coffee at 5:00 am. At one point we ground our own coffee (real old school coffee grinder lol). I think my environment is what led me to start during coffee. I started drinking coffee during high school but stopped in 2019. I no longer drink coffee but it has a very soothing smell to me.

Right now all I drink is tea.

I tried coffee several times as a child but found it repulsive. My mum used to make coffee with freshly ground beans and the smell caught my attention and started getting into it around age 13 or 14.

At home I love to have a coffee with good quality beans or pre-ground coffee to keep me relaxed and stable. At work I have to have shitty instant coffee but I still need it to take the edge off.

If I miss my morning coffee I develop a big headache and feel unfocused, irritable, tired and twitchy. These symptoms will only go away by having a coffee. I think I might be dependant on caffeine lol

i deliberately turned myself onto black coffee when i was 20. before that, i loved the smell, but hated the taste.

in the years since, i've turned into something of a coffee purist, preferring to control my brew as much as i can. depending on the time i have or the situation, i have several different brew options at home..... normally i do french press, but when i can afford the attention moka pot makes the best tasting coffee, but i have to grab it from the stove right at the moment it finishes or it burns.

i only use light-to-medium roasts, anything darker tastes burnt. at home i grind cardamom and pepper with my coffee, to add some extra flavor notes; drink it black.

if i do get coffee from a shop, it's generally an oat-milk latte. i used to get americanos, but again, burnt.


every once in a while, i go without for a day or two, to be sure i'm not addicted to it. i only want to have so much of a dependence.

It's just f**king coffee...

Don't nerd out over it, but don't buy cheap shit...

And an Americano can f**k off. It's just a black coffee, thanks...

Tealyra is a good source for herbal loose teas.

From my experience in addition to getting the right bean and roast for your personal tastes, the right gear is needed. I use a Tecnivorm Moccamaster. Pricey but its show its worth over the past 5 years.

For my daily I tend to prefer beans from the Italian company Lavazza. Qualita Rossa

French press is another method I've come to enjoy.

Any recommendations for an espresso machine?

I'm more of a tea person. I hate coffee for its bitter taste.

I consume tea like once a month. I don't take too much caffeine.